We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

The
Manhattan apartment with the furthest distance from the subway - See
more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/10/the-manhattan-apartment-with-the-furthest-distance-from-the-subway.html#sthash.sGmGyeJN.dpuf

Captain Alex Willard, who was undergoing the training, said the West Africa mission was far different than the kinds of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan than many in the 101st "probably are more comfortable with."

I read where the Canadians are planning an end run around the anti-pipeline nuts, even the ones in the White House and State Department. They will extend a pipeline to the coast of Nova Scotia, then use tankers to export the oil to the GOMEX refineries by transiting down past Martha's Vineyard, and around Florida. Good news is, the Gulf Stream means southbound traffic hugs the coast and, you know, hurricanes.

The enviro nuts will then be begging for the much safer Keystone Pipeline extension.

"Susan Collins, told a local news station that she won’t vote to repeal Obamacare because we are past the point of repealing Obamacare."

Susan Collins is an example of our Rino Republican move to the left. Even if Republicans get control of the senate next month I don't expect them to repeak Obamacare, fix the border, cut spending, cut taxes, cut the size of government. Their only goal in getting elected seems to be to reward their cronies instead of the Democrat cronies. I would prefer the Republicans lose in their bid to take the senate. I would much prefer to be screwed over by the Democrats then stabbed in the back by the Republicans.

This defies what we know of human endeavor, especially political and committee endeavors. Namely, that human endeavor is most often wrong, cannot withstand the tests of time and must improvise, adapt, overcome in order to continue.

QUOTE:

How is it that the mind devises and the hand executes with such nice adaptation of means to the end in view, a bridge, that resembles a spider's web, and yet bears thousands of tons and endures for ages, but when it undertakes to legislate evolves statutes that wear out in a year?

So is the value of a college degree declining or is the quality of the degrees on offer lower than in the past?

There seems to be no evidence that the value of knowledge that a college degree is s, let's use high finance, a derivative. Now the value of a derivative is suppose to reflect the value of the underlying asset(s). Problem is, these derivatives came to be valued by who bundled the underlying assets rather than those assets directly. Owning a particular college derivative came to be seen as having more value than a less prestigious bundler's derivative. Thus the derivative became adrift from the value of the underlying assets and was used as a signal to others of status. This speculation in the derivatives drove up the price of the underlying asset leading to increasing leverage. Unfortunately, some are starting to see that the "value" of the derivative is not representative of the value of the underlying bundle of knowledge. It is this reconciliation of values that is being seen in the market with the perceptive value of the derivative falling to reflect the quality of the underlying bundle of knowledge, which has declined.

Peter Robinson: Conservatives' rhetorical disadvantage: Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.

This is an excellent statement of conservative principle. Notice how he ascribes it to "all mature people". The problem is that he doesn't match that statement with an equally valid statement of the liberal principle.

QUOTE:

Peter Robinson: Their position is true but boring, that of their opponents exciting but false.

What? Liberals advocate easy destruction?

Of course not. While mature conservatives understand the need for change, but are concerned about the preservation of traditional institutions, mature liberals understand the need to preserve the good in traditional institutions while pushing for reform. Too fast of change, and society can come apart. Too slow of change, society will stagnate, and may yet still come apart. There is an ebb and flow to social progress.

"Liberals" (to use your name) are all about destruction. For example, the Boy Scouts and small business owners with religious convictions counter to the leftist line. In the case of the Boy Scouts, lefties have been all about changing them because they don't like the fact that they have a different view of homosexuality than they. Rather than create their own "scouts" that incorporate their view, they work to force the Boy Scouts to change. In the case of small business owners, if a potential customer requests that they decorate a cake or perform a ceremony on their property that violates their values, they have to either suck it up or close down. Of course, in this case, there are many other options for the potential customer but I guess it's too much to ask him respect the business owner's views.

This is the problem with our tort system - spineless corporations who think it pays them to pay out a "small" award for a ridiculous claim rather than litigate it.

Before I wrote that, I was going to say that that was the second problem with our tort system and the first was that people view it as a high probability lottery ticket but the fact is that those people (opportunists and dirtbags to be sure) are just responding to the reality that they can extort money from "wealthy" companies because they don't want to be bothered by these suits. If more of these were litigated, there would be fewer lawyers looking for a quick, easy buck.

I often get notices in the mail of my opportunity to join a class suing some company for securities law violations. One time I filled in all the required information and sent it in. A few weeks or months later, I received a check for a few dollars. That was the last time I will ever do that. First, I don't even know what they did that harmed me. Second, if it was only worth a few dollars, I don't think I would be too upset by it if I found out what it was. Thirdly, the lawyers who brought the suit made millions while I probably couldn't buy lunch with my award. So in this system, the people who were "harmed" get next to nothing, the company pays millions in awards and legal fees, and the lawyers get rich.

It reminds me of the central idea behind the Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater where the antagonist lawyer tries to wrestle Rosewater's inheritance from him because he remembers that his law professor told him that in every transaction, there is a split second where you can grab a piece of it. It seems either that was a popular book among lawyers or they had a similar professor.

Sgt. Bob, I visited your site and read the piece about the Battle of Trafalger. The question is posed: what if Admiral Nelson had a pc/diversity officer looking over his shoulder during the battle? The scenario is amusing and instructive.

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